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THE STORIES OF THE MONA LISA

Name: THE STORIES OF THE MONA LISA
Author: Pietr Barsony
ISBN: 978-1-62087-228-4

AN IMAGINARY MUSEUM TALE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF MODERN ART

by Pietr Barsony & illustrated by Pietr Barsony & translated by Joanna Oseman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2012

Art lovers of all ages—grown-ups, students and children alike—will be engaged and captivated by this exciting and visually...

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As the book begins, a little girl asks: “Dad, will you tell me a story?” The story her painter father tells is a history of art with the Mona Lisa as its central character.

French artist Barsony here creates a charming, involving parent-child conversation around the iconic Leonardo da Vinci painting. Happily, he also succeeds in creating an unusually compelling personal response to the major Western movements of the last 150 years and their significant artists. He takes daughter and readers both on a journey of discovery through an imaginary museum, which is filled with a wide and amazingly diverse collection of paintings, but curiously, each painting is of only the Mona Lisa. These careful and astonishingly fresh paintings, rendered by Barsony himself, are so compelling because they are his own responses to and interpretations of Leonardo’s masterpiece as filtered through the vision of other artists and movements. In fact, each one of these “new” Mona Lisas (paired with an accessible and wonderfully informed text) masterfully reflects the techniques, subjects and sensibilities of major European and American art movements and artists, including such painters as Monet, Turner, Manet, Cézanne, Picasso, Dix, Kandinsky, Bacon, Pollock, De Kooning, Warhol, Haring, Basquiat, Richter and more.

Art lovers of all ages—grown-ups, students and children alike—will be engaged and captivated by this exciting and visually arresting entree into fine art. (Nonfiction. 10 & up)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-62087-228-4

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Sky Pony Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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PERCY JACKSON'S GREEK HEROES

by Rick Riordan ; illustrated by John Rocco ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 18, 2015

Tales that “lay out your options for painful and interesting ways to die.” And to live.

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In a similarly hefty companion to Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods (2014), the most voluble of Poseidon’s many sons dishes on a dozen more ancient relatives and fellow demigods.

Riordan averts his young yarn spinner’s eyes from the sex but not the stupidity, violence, malice, or bad choices that drive so many of the old tales. He leavens full, refreshingly tart accounts of the ups and downs of such higher-profile heroes as Theseus, Orpheus, Hercules, and Jason with the lesser-known but often equally awesome exploits of such butt-kicking ladies as Atalanta, Otrera (the first Amazon), and lion-wrestling Cyrene. In thought-provoking contrast, Psyche comes off as no less heroic, even though her story is less about general slaughter than the tough “Iron Housewives quests” Aphrodite forces her to undertake to rescue her beloved Eros. Furthermore, along with snarky chapter heads (“Phaethon Fails Driver’s Ed”), the contemporary labor includes references to Jay-Z, Apple Maps, god-to-god texting, and the like—not to mention the way the narrator makes fun of hard-to-pronounce names and points up such character flaws as ADHD (Theseus) and anger management issues (Hercules). The breezy treatment effectively blows off at least some of the dust obscuring the timeless themes in each hero’s career. In Rocco’s melodramatically murky illustrations, men and women alike display rippling thews and plenty of skin as they battle ravening monsters.

Tales that “lay out your options for painful and interesting ways to die.” And to live. (maps, index) (Mythology. 10-14)

Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4231-8365-5

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS
by Rick Riordan

- BOOK REVIEW
PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS
by Rick Riordan

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SUN AND THE STAR
by Rick Riordan & Mark Oshiro

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A LONG WALK TO WATER

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

by Linda Sue Park ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 2010

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Salva Dut is 11 years old when war raging in the Sudan separates him from his family. To avoid the conflict, he walks for years with other refugees, seeking sanctuary and scarce food and water. Park simply yet convincingly depicts the chaos of war and an unforgiving landscape as they expose Salva to cruelties both natural and man-made. The lessons Salva remembers from his family keep him from despair during harsh times in refugee camps and enable him, as a young man, to begin a new life in America. As Salva’s story unfolds, readers also learn about another Sudanese youth, Nya, and how these two stories connect contributes to the satisfying conclusion. This story is told as fiction, but it is based on real-life experiences of one of the “Lost Boys” of the Sudan. Salva and Nya’s compelling voices lift their narrative out of the “issue” of the Sudanese War, and only occasionally does the explanation of necessary context intrude in the storytelling. Salva’s heroism and the truth that water is a source of both conflict and reconciliation receive equal, crystal-clear emphasis in this heartfelt account. (Fiction. 10-14)